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Police: Couple Confessed to Bali Suitcase Killing

09/19/14: Heather Mack and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were arrested in Bali on Aug. 13, a day after the body of Mack's mother was found in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort. NBC Chicago's Regina Waldroup reports at midday. (Published Friday, Sept. 19, 2014)

The lawyer for an Oak Park man accused of killing his girlfriend's mother in Bali last month denies his client has confessed to the crime, according to the Wednesday Journal.

Indonesian police said last week that Tommy Schaefer, 21, confessed during an interrogation to killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack, and that his girlfriend, 19-year-old Heather Mack, acknowledged helping him stuff her mother's dead body into a suitcase.

Attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin told the publication that he has been in contact with Schaefer over the last few weeks, and that his client "has not confessed, pure and simple," although he was unsure how the information about the confession surfaced. Durkin has not traveled to Bali, but says he's considering making the trip.

The Associated Press reported last week that Indonesian police chief Col. Djoko Heru Utomo said Schaefer confessed that he killed von Wiese-Mack after an argument.

An autopsy found that von Wiese-Mack, 62, died of asphyxiation from a broken nose bone resulting from a blunt blow, said Ida Bagus Putu Alit, head of forensics at Sanglah Hospital in Bali's provincial capital of Denpasar. She also suffered from a broken neck, Alit said.

If found guilty, both suspects could be sentenced to death under Article 340 of Indonesia's Criminal Code.